Causality and Change

The world is always changing, but not all change is the result of causality. Whenever something new or different appears, it is not always simply an effect of a previous cause.

Causality is different from change, and yet they are related to each other. Change can occur either before cause or after it. Change can generate causality, and causality can generate change. In the world of the atom, some events are the result of change, and some are the result of causality.

Effect is only change. The ability to change allows causality to function. What is it that ties cause to effect?  Cause and effect are tied together by relativity.

A Digression on Relativity.
My understanding of relativity is derived from my analysis of perception, and is different from the traditional view of it. My definition of relativity is that anything that is relative has both a subjective component and an objective component to it. Relativity is a relationship between a subjective aspect and an objective aspect of the object or matter in question.

The general meaning of relativity is :
In any relative relationship, a subjective effect is always tied to an objective effect. [¹]

The importance of this view of relativity lies in my view that the ego is a relative construction. The ego is constructed by the new-born baby as it learns to relativise the sensory stimuli acting on it into certain recurrent shapes, shapes that one day it will recognise as being the teddy bear, the rattle, the face of the mother, etc. It learns to discriminate by relativising its sensory stimuli into patterns. These patterns become the objects of the everyday world, and the baby becomes the subject who sees these objects. The relationship between the subjective world of the baby and the objective world of external objects is a relative relationship. Hence the ego is a relative construction. A relative ego means that a subjective ego is always linked to some form of an objective world.

A relative ego participates in a relative world. The world as we see it is a relative phenomenon. And everything in the world is relative.

Relativity ties together subjectivity with objectivity. I apply this relationship to change and causality. Change is relatively subjective, and cause is relatively objective. A subjective change prepares the way for an objective cause. An objective cause generates another subjective change (as an effect). In cause and effect both objective and subjective aspects of relativity interact to produce the final result.

A Digression on the Wave - Particle debate.
Everything in the world is relative, including atomic phenomena. The particle is tied to the wave by relativity. In the wave-particle paradox, one factor is a relative subjectivity and the other is a relative objectivity. Which is which?  The particle is an object, a piece of matter ; hence it is the relative objectivity. This leaves the wave as the relative subjectivity. [²]

The objective component of relativity is the particle.
The subjective component of relativity is the wave.

In the drama of creation, the wave precedes the particle. The reason for this is that subjectivity always precedes objectivity, or that objectivity can only be manifested in reality after it has first been created in the subjective mind. (In my metaphysical perspective, the mind that creates objective reality is the subjective mind of god). So the creation of a physical world starts from a scenario of a dynamic sea of energy, of wave motion. Then gradually this energy condenses into static matter. The interaction between wave and particle occurs through causality and/or change.

Some theorists prefer to avoid explanations in terms of cause and effect. They use a perspective of objects and events. This is not a significant variation to the wave-particle pattern. To incorporate the perspective of objects and events, relativity can be recast as :

The objective component is the object.
The subjective component is the event that occurs.

The web of relationships is dynamic and so represents the events perspective. The objective object is the agent of objective causality. The subjective event experiences subjective change. Without objects there is nothing to originate causality. Without events there is nothing to change. Objects and events depend on each other.

Neither an object-orientated theory nor an event-orientated theory can ever be solely fundamental, since each represents just a single perspective on reality. In order to solve paradoxes, two perspectives are required. [³]. [A paradox is just the result of rolling two perspectives, two dimensions, into one and then using one-dimensional thinking]. Within a single perspective, theories based on objects cannot derive change : change has to be given as an axiom. Similarly, theories based on a web of relationships cannot derive cause : cause always has to be an axiom too.

Internal and External Change

I compare the ways that change occurs to matter and to consciousness.

In my understanding, consciousness is also a relative phenomenon. The dynamic aspect of consciousness is the ego; the ego is unstructured. The static aspect of consciousness creates psychological structure using the person's past, which centres on determinism or karma. Putting these ideas into a framework of relativity means that the ego is a relative subjectivity. And the person's character, behaviour, and the psychological influences acting on him from the past form a relative objectivity. [4]

The interactions within consciousness, and between wave and particle, occurs through causality and change. Change is relatively subjective, and cause is relatively objective. The central point to understand is that subjectivity always arises first and then generates objectivity. Hence change can occur before cause. This means only that within matter, subjective change results from energy changes (that is, changes in the flow of charge) and is of random character. Within consciousness, such change can occur through abreaction. This kind of change is internal. [5]

Causality generates directed or focused change. Within matter, change due to relative objectivity relates to space and time (for example : velocity, position). Within consciousness, such change represents social learning. The kind of change produced by cause is external.

The preferred use of quantum mechanics for solving problems in atomic theory can lead to the view that all processes are non-causal. This view is only partly correct. Some of the processes are due to change, and so may be non-causal. But others are due to causality. So, too, within consciousness : change can be either causal or non-causal. Non-causal events indicate that chance plays a part in reality and evolution.

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[¹]. Section 1 describes aspects of relativity as it applies to perception and to consciousness. The first article in this section is  The Ego and Relativity. [1]

[²]. For the resolution of the wave-particle paradox in atomic physics, see the article Waves and Particles. [2]

[³]. The method of solving paradoxes, such as the wave - particle paradox, is to use two concepts that are in opposition to each other. This method assumes that there are two axes, or perspectives, to reality.
See the article The Antinomies. [3]

[4]. For a description of consciousness as a product of a relative subjectivity and a relative objectivity, see the article The Antinomies. [4]

[5]. For an analysis of change within the atom, see the article Charge and Feeling. For an analysis of the way the mind changes during the process of abreaction, see the article Notes on Emotion and Abreaction. [5]

[6]. Feelings are not the same as emotions. There are just three feelings : the pleasant one, the unpleasant one, and the neutral one. However, there are a multitude of emotions. See the article Notes on Emotion and Abreaction.
See also the article Charge and Feeling. [6]

The articles in this section are :